


flaming marshmallows

by scrawlerem



Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: Camping AU, F/M, Fluff, Harry Potter - Freeform, Hiking, Kissing in the Rain, Marauders, Marauders era, Modern AU, One Shot, Outback - Freeform, Tents, james x lily - Freeform, jily, pure fluff no angst here whoops, uni - Freeform, wolfstar
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-08-03
Updated: 2017-08-03
Packaged: 2018-12-10 13:02:39
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 5,631
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11692191
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/scrawlerem/pseuds/scrawlerem
Summary: He’d not been keen to go camping this weekend in the first place. James had two university assignments due at the end of next week which he hadn’t even started. Although he was usually pretty skilled in leaving work until the last minute, even James had to admit that these assignments were going to be tricky. But Sirius had protested ‘bonding time’ and all of a sudden he couldn’t get out of the groups little expedition to nature.(modern day, camping au (no magic))





	flaming marshmallows

James watched Sirius grin as he gazed across the vibrant valley of poplar trees that stretched in front of the four boy’s eyes. Sirius’ face shone with triumph as he surveyed his newly proclaimed kingdom. James scowled. He suspected that he might be in higher spirits if he hadn’t been carrying Sirius’ pack for the last five kilometres. The pack-less boy was almost glowing, while James felt himself sticky with sweat, his hair wet on his face. His shoulders were bruised and aching from the heavy packs.

He’d not been keen to go camping this weekend in the first place. James had two university assignments due at the end of next week which he hadn’t even started. Although he was usually pretty skilled in leaving work until the last minute, even James had to admit that these assignments were going to be tricky. But Sirius had protested _bonding time_  and all of a sudden he couldn’t get out of the groups little expedition to nature.

Scowling, James looked around at his other two friends. He concluded that Remus looked as wrecked as he felt. Peter, however, looked less so affected. James took a large gasping breath before throwing the two packs on the ground, all the while reminding himself to never again to put exercise on the line of football bets.

Sirius breathed in a large gulp of fresh mountain air before turning to beam at the group, “For all your protesting James, that wasn’t so bad, was it?”

James shot him a hard glare from his position on the ground. Peter collapsed next to him.

“I’m starved.” The round faced boy muttered. James groaned, the thought of food was too much. Fortunately, Remus took pity at the two and threw a muesli bar at their heads.

“Split it,” Remus mused, “We only have two.”

“Are you kidding?” James asked incredulously. “We have another three kilometres until we reach the campsite.”

Remus shrugged and smiled slightly before beginning to walk again, “I wanted to pack light.” Sirius laughed and followed Remus on the track.

James took an angry bite into his fruity bar, “Prick,” He muttered, before slinging the two bags over his shoulders once more.

\---

Two and a half kilometres later, James’ could finally see the campsite up ahead. The only light in the distance seemed to come from a singular cabin and a rather impressive bonfire. The rest of the wide clearing was made up of several dozen, ill lit, khaki coloured tents. 

As the four boys grew closer, it became apparent that the campsite was milling with people. Most of them were made of families of different sizes, James couldn’t spot anyone around their age anywhere. They stopped at they reached the edge of the site and met the first tent.

“If I fail my course because of this, it’s on you.”  James muttered to Sirius before they began to weave through the makeshift homes to the lit up cabin.

“This isn’t exactly camping, is it?” Remus drawled as they peered through the glass doors of the reception, spotting a fridge filled with milk and basic food supply.

“You’ll be thanking me when we’re not starving tonight, living off a quarter of a muesli bar and an apple.” Sirius grinned. Remus smirked slightly before pushing open the glass doors. The room was small, a counter and the fridge being the only real furniture. However, on the other wall was a large rectangular mirror. Peter grinned at James in their reflection, pointing to his absurd appearance that featured even wilder than usual hair, a red face and dirt covered clothes. James reflected that initiating a mud fight may not have been as a spectacular idea as previously hoped.  Particularly when James noted the obvious lack of showers on the campsite.

Overall, he looked like he’d been sleeping under a bridge for the last week. He had a patch of dried mud on his face. Peter’s laugh continuously filled the room, James couldn’t help but break out into a small grin at his own expense.

He edged away from the mirror and towards the empty counter. There was a singular silver bell positioned on the surface, with a small card that read, _please ring for assistance_. He lightly pressed the dainty bell twice. He looked around at Sirius and Remus as he waited, they were already halfway through raiding the fridge, placing their haul onto the counter to purchase.

A mockery to jab at the two boys was on the tip of his tongue until a figure approached from the curtained doorway behind the counter. A singular event which consequently ripped any thought of his mate’s from his mind.

A girl with mind boggling, shiny, dark red hair appeared behind the wooden counter. She appeared around his age although it was difficult to tell exactly. James had to remind himself to close his mouth. Her hair cascaded in waves around her face and her face was highlighted with a welcoming expression.

That had been until, her eyes’ landed on James. A point which her expression instead morphed into horrified amusement.

As a reflex, James brought his hand to his hair. Although he was only greeted with a flat, matted mess and a reminder of his current physical appearance. His face coloured with a foreign burning sensation.

Sirius, who was unaffected by the beauty that stood before him, approached the counter to provide their booking details. The girl cast James one more confused look before turning to greet Sirius. James inwardly cursed the universe to holy hell while the girl rummaged for the tent details. He glanced over at Remus who smirked at him silently.

“Section D, Tent 7 and 8.” The girl informed Sirius as she handed him a slip of paper. “They’re on the left side, overlooking the mountains. Just where the sun should rise over in the morning. Although, I don’t suppose you lot will get up early enough to see it.”

“Actually, James over here is actually quite the early riser.” Remus said, casting him a cheeky look. From an outsider’s perspective, one may think Remus was being helpful. Perhaps it would’ve been too, if his statement had been one that was just frankly not true. In fact, back when the four boy’s boarded together in high school, James could remember numerous occasions when he’d successfully slept in until 3 o’clock on the weekends.

“Really?” She asked, looking amused again when reminded of the comical looking boy.

“Oh yeah. I… er… like the birds chirping and everything.”  James stumbled.

She surveyed him sceptically before moving on. “Right, well, the camp has a group bonfire every night at around eight as you may have seen. And-” She handed them each a timetable. “-tomorrow, there’s a choice between a hike in the morning or abseiling at 11:00. Oh, and we’re cooking damper for lunch. Come along for what you’d like but feel free to try out any of the trails yourself.” She explained. “Each activity is run by a coordinator. Make sure to watch out for snakes, if you’re worried, always go on the walks with a counsellor who knows how to treat a wound as there’s no cell reception for another three kilometres.” She paused. “Let me think, is that all? Yes. Oh wait.” She turned back to James once more and smiled slightly, “There’s strictly no shower access to campers so… if you can… we recommend trying to stay clean.”

Peter snorted. James cracked a small girn, “Got it.”

The red head smiled back. “Do you need any assistance finding your tent?”

“That’d be brilliant.” James replied.

The girl stepped out from the counter and gestured for them to follow her as she trekked her way through the grass flat. The bonfire was in full swing amongst the guests and a tune that sounded suspiciously like God Save the Queen was being sung boisterously.

The red head’s speed left her a few metres ahead of the group. James ran to catch up to her and introduced himself.

The girl turned her head to look at him with almond shaped green eyes. “I’m Lily,” she replied.

James smiled again, “Nice to meet you Lily.”

“And you.” They walked for several seconds before she spoke again. “So James… Is there exactly any reason you look like you’ve lost a fight with a bear?”

James laughed while reddening slightly, “Let’s just say I’ve learnt to no longer start mud wars when I’m the one carrying two packs.” 

She looked at him like he was a little crazy, but let out a small laugh all the same. James felt his mouth quirk up at the sound.

“Why were you carrying two packs?” She asked curiously.

“Lost a bet.” He muttered again.

Lily tutted, “Full of good decisions, aren’t we?”

James sighed as they reached a sign that read _SECTION D,_ “Welcome to my life.”

Lily gestured to two tents, “Here we are, number 7 and 8.”

“Cheers,” Remus murmured before ducking into the tent to examine their new crib.

“It’s already set up.” Peter noted, surprised.

“Well you guys did book it pre-made.” Lily informed them.

They all turned to look at Sirius, he grinned. “Told you you’d love me.”

“Unfortunately, it’s true,” Remus sighed from the tent. Sirius grinned as he went to join his boyfriend inside.

James grimaced, “There better not be any funny business tonight, I don’t want to hear anything!”

“With you reeking like that, I don’t think there’s much chance.” Sirius replied from inside. James wanted to kick the stupid git.

Lily was watching them, looking bemused. “Well, you four have fun, don’t forget about the activities.” She began to turn away before adding craftily, “Although I suspect I’ll see you at sunrise.”

James grinned guiltily. She was a further ten metres away before deciding to take his chances, “Wait!”. Lily turned around. “Just out of curiosity, what activity will you be at tomorrow?”

She tilted her head slightly, twisting her mouth. “The hike,” She replied. “It starts at 8:00.”

 James couldn’t really tell from the distance, but he thought she may be trying not to smile.

\---

The rest of the night included too much mocking of James’ obvious infatuation than he would have liked. An hour of merciless teasing had passed before Sirius complained, reminding them it was supposed to be a _guy’s_ weekend. Although James pointed out that that was hardly fair, he’d brought his boyfriend with him after all. So in order to withhold his honour, Sirius switched tents with Peter; leaving James to promise he wouldn’t try anything with Lily.

But that didn’t stop him from heavily suggesting they should do the hike tomorrow morning instead of the abseiling. It also didn’t stop James from forcing himself to wake up at seven, around fifty minutes earlier than he would to be somewhere at 8:00.

This sacrifice allowed him to go on a short walk to the creek he’d seen a while back from the camp site and give himself a thorough clean. An idea that proved successful despite nearly freezing himself to the bone in his attempts. Luckily, the mountain water was running and fairly clean as it’d rained the previous day. James even managed to find some shampoo shoved in Sirius’ pack so he was able to un-matt his hair to return it to its mud free state.

He gave his glasses a final polish before drying off, feeling much cleaner and heading back to the campsite. The three boys hadn’t stirred so he prodded each of them with his foot as 7:45 approached.  

Peter greeted him with a “Merlin, James, what happened to you?” While Sirius and Remus just provided incoherent grumbling. Nevertheless, at precisely 8:01, after Sirius’s mood revealed to them all that he himself had not quite realised the finer points of camping; (also known as the lack of comfort that is the ground); the four boys departed their tents and approached the surprisingly large walking group composed near the counsellor cabin.

James spotted Lily at the head of the group and his stomach did a rather unmanly flip. Her red hair was bundled into a high pony tail today and the early morning sunrays revealed to James even more of her glorious face that he’d seen the night before. She was halfway through greeting the group and running through the guidelines of the walk as the boys slipped in to the back of the crowd.

When Sirius realised it was her, he shot James a glare.

“-and ensure that at least one person is in sight at all times. But don’t worry this isn’t much of a dangerous track. The water taps are just up ahead so I recommend you fill up your canteen before we leave and then let’s begin.” She finished.

The group began moving forward, edging towards the beginning of the path. James watched Lily’s eyes scan the group, looking for what he hoped was him. But her eyes flicked right over his newly washed figure, landing on Remus instead.

As she weaved through walking people to approach, she said, “So, did you friend opt for abseiling instead? Or has he just been up for so long listening to the birds this is too late for him?”

Remus shook his head, chuckling slightly, “No, actually he was pretty set on the hike.”

“Oh,” She glanced around, “Well where is he then?”

Lily appeared confused but her eyes moved to the direction Remus was pointing. James sent her a grin when her eyes landed on his. He swore he saw her mouth open a little in surprise at his new appearance, but she quickly closed it and tried to look nonchalant. But James couldn’t help but notice the way her eyes lingered on him as she approached.

“You didn’t sneak into the counsellor’s cabin to have a shower, did you?”

“Unfortunately no.” James grimaced, “But I wish I had, lake water is bloody freezing.”

Lily laughed a little at his expense, looking up at him again, pausing as if to properly examine his features.

After a minute she said, “You know, I think you looked better with the mud.”

James glared at her and she let out a sharp laugh and hurried back to the front to lead the group.

\---

Quickly, James discovered he preferred hiking much more when he only had one pack on his back carrying a snack and a bottle of water. He also enjoyed it a lot more when he had Lily Evans in his sight. Her last name was a discovery brought to him by small glittered letters inscribed on the back of her pack.  

Not that he got to talk to her much, considering they were at the back of the group and she was at the front. There was also the factor of the promise he’d made to Sirius about keeping this weekend specifically _girl_ free. But while the rest of his friends were distracted by the impressive view at the rest point, James plopped himself down next to Lily sitting on a rock.

 “So, how’d you come to work at a campsite?” James asked before taking a bite of his apple. She eyed him suspiciously.

 “Actually, my parents own this place. I Just finished my exams for the semester so I’m up here helping for the week, and maybe some of the holidays.”  

“Lucky. I’ve got two assignments due at the end of the week, but then I’m done too.”

She looked at him incredulously, “You haven’t finished and you’re up here?”

James grinned. She looked almost scared for him.

“What can I say, Sirius over there-” James pointed to his friends. “-is a good persuader. Besides, I’m just here for the weekend.”

“Still,” She shook her head, taking a sip from her bottle, “Good luck with that.”  

“Yeah, well.” James scratched his head.

“So which one is Sirius? The one with godlike hair?” She asked, a spark present behind her eyes.

James feigned offence, “Hey, _I’m_ the one with the godlike hair.”

Lily looked at him sceptically, “Considering it was more percent mud than hair when I first saw it. I’m disagreeing.”

“Whatever,” James huffed, “But yeah, I suppose that’s the one.”

“So then…” She started again slyly, “What about the cute one?”

James felt his smile slip off his face in an instant and he felt a stone drop into his stomach.

“The _Cute_ One?” He asked incuriously.  

Then Lily laughed. When he didn’t reply she looked at him incredulously, “I’m _joking_.”  

“Oh.” James started, an embarrassing amount of relief flooding his body. “Oh well I-“

“James!” Peter called, from across the small clearing. “You’ve got to hear this!” The sound of the rest of his groups raucous laughter echoed across the clearing. Grateful for an escape of his embarrassment and keen to get away before Sirius noticed him talking to Lily, James slung his backpack over his shoulders and stood up.

“I’ve got to go.” He nodded. “I’ll see you at lunch.”

Lily nodded as he turned away, a bit of a mystified expression on her face.

\---

James made a point to flick bits of damper in Lily’s direction every once and a while during lunch, although he didn’t receive much more back than a glare. Instead, most of the meal consisted of a fierce competition of who was the finest culinary damper cook between the boys. Peter took the crown while Remus lost and James was painstakingly reminded of the boys adventures to the kitchen in fifth year that had resulted in many burnt cookies of Remus’ behalf. 

They extended their competition into the bonfire that night, this time they argued of the best way to roast marshmallows. Peter persisted that the sweet just needed to be warm enough to be crisp whereas Sirius was adamant the whole thing had to be on fire before it was even near ready.

The bonfire seemed to be quite an event at the campsite, nearly everyone was out of their tents and huddled on camping chairs, spotted tree stumps or logs. James had never seen a fire reach such heights or felt such warmth being spread. He felt his stomach jolt as he spotted Lily, mid-laugh next to a round faced, short haired blonde girl and another rather bony girl wearing Lily’s same camp polo and a rather sour expression on her face.

Lily’s eyes shifted and locked eyes with James across the fire. The light illuminated her face so that her hair became one with the flames in front of her. His eyes stayed locked on hers until Peter screeched and he was forced to look away.

The rest of the boys were getting hyped up with the chattering atmosphere around them and soon they had abandoned trying to make the marshmallows taste good. Instead, they found it much more amusing just to watch the marshmallows burn on their sticks.

This was all fun until Sirius flicked his stick in such enthusiasm that it caused a flaming marshmallow to go flying and land on James’ cheek, dripping molten sugar. James swore and hurried to wipe off his face, only to receive a further burn on his hand. Sharp pain erupted in both areas. He heard Sirius swear an apology but James was more interested in the cream coloured hand he saw gently take his arm and pull him in the direction of the old cabin.

Lily pulled open the door and hurriedly pushed James behind the curtain he saw her exit from the previous day. They had entered a much larger room which he assumed was the living area. She sat him down on the couch and hurried to a large glass cabinet on the wall which appeared to contain an impressive variety of bandages, gauzes, ointments and medicine.

Lily approached the cabinet with decided calmness, stretching on her tippy toes to grab a tube and a gauze. She then proceeded to the sink, grabbing a large container from the drying rack and filling it up with water.

Once she returned to the seat next to him, she gently placed his burnt hand in the cool liquid. The relief was immediate and he felt himself sigh a little.

“Thanks.” He breathed.

Lily gave him a small smile as she unscrewed the tube of burn treatment, still without saying a word. She shifted closer to him and despite the situation, James felt his pulse pick up.

“This may hurt a little.” She murmured, as she reached up to his face to press a cool cloth to it. He winced at the pressure slightly, the burn was on the edge of his jaw. She reached for the small tube. “Now, this is just a burn treatment that will relieve some of the pain.” Her hand was cold on his face as she moved it to lightly dab the cream onto his lower cheek. 

The situation James found himself in was so bizarre. But for a moment, as Lily’s eyes flicked to his, her face was so close he thought for a second he might kiss her. Which was ridiculous, they’d known each other for less than 24 hours and this wasn’t some house party. Still, he felt his eyes flicker down to her lips. She didn’t move, instead she seemed frozen as she looked back at him, her hand still gently resting on her face.

There was a loud knock on the cabin wall and Lily glanced outside the window where people seemed to be moving away from the bonfire gradually in groups.

Unfrozen, Lily’s hand fell from James’ face. She sighed slightly, “I have to go help pack up or Petunia will be on to me in a minute.” She moved away from him to wash the ointment off her hands. James felt an odd chill without her presence.

“Petunia?” He asked, getting back his breath. “Was she the woman sitting next to you, looking like she’d smelt something foul?”

“Yes,” Lily grimaced, “That’s my sister.”

“Oh bugger, sorry.”

A laugh escaped Lily’s lips that didn’t quite reach her eyes, “Don’t worry about it. We’re not exactly close.”

“Oh, I see.” James spoke awkwardly, “I have no siblings myself.”

“That must be nice.” She said wistfully, re-joining him on the couch with a gauze in her hand.  

“It’s a bit lonely actually, but I have Sirius and he’s as good as one anyway.” James paused for a moment. “You’re really good at this you know. The whole taking care of people thing.” He gestured to his hand.

Lily smiled slightly, “It’s not too hard to treat a burn.”

“Yeah but you’re so cool and collective about it you know? I just get too panicked. You’re more… er… gentle.” James said. He thought he saw her blush a little.

“Well I suppose medical school is the plan.” She said, almost shyly. She began lightly wrapping the burn on his hand in a light gauze.

“You want to be a doctor?” He asked her.

“Something like that.” An even louder knock sided from the side of the cabin this time. Lily sighed again. “I really should go help. Here.” She handed him the burn cream. “Reapply this if it rubs off or starts hurting too much again and I’d take some pain killers before bed if I were you.”

He took the cream, “Thanks.” He smiled at her.

“No problem,” She grinned back, “Now get out of here before Petunia starts yelling.”

\---

 

As the next day rolled in, so did suspiciously dark grey rain clouds. According to the itinerary, a short hike down to a lower point was going to allow a small zip line of sorts today but much to James dismay, a notice was posted of its cancellation due to the bad weather.

And indeed, by nine o’clock, all that could be heard by James’ ears was the loud, persistent thumping of rain on the side of his tent. All four of the boys’ were cramped into one tent, huddled around a pack of cards and a rather intense game of _Bullshit_ that James was happily winning. In fact, he was down to his last three when he heard an even louder thumping on the side of his tent and an outline of a hand appeared.

The boys all looked at each other sceptically, who would be out in this rain? Cautiously, James moved towards the exit of the tent. Slowly, he zipped upwards, revealing a rather drowned and stressed looking Lily.

“James!” She said loudly, attempting to be heard over the rain. She squatted down to his eye level and poked her head inside the tent to shield her face from the pelting rain.

“Lily!” James said back, surprised. The boys still looked at him confused, unaware the two were so familiar with each other. “What are you doing?!”

Lily tried to tuck her wet hair behind her ears, “Please, the empty, unweighted tents are flying around everywhere in the wind. I’m trying to peg them down but they’re not having it. And Petunia’s refusing to help but Mum and Dad will go bonkers if we lose any. It’s like their running away from me. I tried to-“

“Woah okay Lily. Don’t worry. I’ll come help.” James said, disregarding his nearly won hand.

Lily sighed in relief, already moving back to her job of tent saving, “Thank you, thank you. Quick.”

He turned to his friends expectantly. They stared back at him blankly.

“What? Oh- what no. I’m not going out in that hurricane.” Sirius said, bewildered.

Peter glanced at Remus before replying, “Yeah sorry James, we’re good.”

Rolling his eyes, James hurried out of the warm tent to follow Lily. Greeted with the icy rain enveloping his body, he followed her distant figure who he noticed had disregarded all pretense of attempting to keep up the tents or pack them properly. Instead, she had one bundled in her arms, while chasing another one flying in front of her.

James ran to help and grabbed the tent she was chasing just before she tripped over the one she was carrying. She landed rather heavily in the mud. He offered her a hand as she moved to stand up.

“I thought you were supposed to be an outback extraordinaire!” He yelled, over the rain.

“Ha. Ha. Funny!” She yelled back.

It must’ve taken nearly up to forty minutes to round up all the tents going crazy. He watched enviously at the outline of the rest of the campers positioned warmly and safely in their tents. Although, he had to admit, it’s not like it wasn’t fun watching Lily running around in the rain, chasing flying tents.

Her first fall James had seen was nothing to the several more he performed. He had landed face first in the mud so many times he suspected that he probably mimicked his appearance from when he arrived.

Eventually, the two of them had a rather impressive collection of soaked tents shoved into a store shelter at the back of the cabin. Once the last tent was thrown onto the pile, Lily let out a sigh of relief.

“Job well done team.” Lily said, raising her hand. He grinned and high-fived her as she beamed back, both of them riled up with energy from the last forty minutes of mayham. James couldn’t help but notice that Lily looked rather good, despite her tousled, wet hair and soaked clothes.  

“I’ve got to say.” James started, “Do I get some sort of camper of the month award for this? You know, I didn’t see anyone else out there helping.”

Lily’s mouth twisted, “Hmmm maybe. Depends if you can prove you really deserve it. I can’t have someone who isn’t consistent.”

James tilted his head slightly, “Some way to prove it to you then. Have any ideas?”

Lily paused in response for a moment, looking at him for a few seconds. He took a step towards her.

“A race to that tree and back.” She said suddenly. James glanced over at the direction she was pointing.

“Sure.” He grinned, not disheartened.

All he got in reply was a flick of mud as Lily took of out into the rain once more, running full speed on the slippery ground. James quickly followed, although his vision was rather limited as he ran with the rain hitting his glasses. He saw a red head figure in front of him, hair flying backwards. He had little to no clue which direction he was running to at this moment. Instead, he focused his concentration purely on gaining on Lily.

He had almost caught up to her from behind. He could actually feel bits of mud fly up from her shoes to splatter his clothes. He was just a hands reach away. He was about to take a final leap when suddenly, James felt himself crash into Lily’s stopped body in front of him.

The slippery ground gave way beneath him and James fell backwards, bringing Lily’s luckily small frame with him. Her body crashed onto his as the pair hit the floor. Sometimes James wished he didn’t have to wear glasses.

“Oof.” Lily grunted, as she swivelled to prop her face off the ground.

“Ah shit. Sorry.” James groaned from his position on the ground. “You alright?”

“Yeah, fine.” Lily hazily rubbed the mud out of her face and glanced down at James. He watched her eyes as they widened once more when she realised the position they lay in. Her legs were straddled around James waist and her face was hovering over his. He noticed her cheeks coloured but again but she didn’t lean away as she looked back at him.

“You’ve got a bit of mud just…there.” He said, indicating to her whole body.

“Still not as much as you had on when I first saw you, I’m sure.” She replied, she still hadn’t moved from her position. Her green eyes were still on his. James noticed that she had small dashes of freckles on her cheek bones. He also noticed that her lips were particularly pink.

They both were frozen on the muddy ground. A whole campsite of people only metres away, unaware of the event occurring around them.

“Your shirt’s a bit wet.” She tried again weakly, attempting to remove some of the tension. But he noticed she still wasn’t moving.

He couldn’t help himself, he glanced at her lips again. His stomach gave a jolt when he watched her do the same. They were both breathing heavily from their sprint only moments before. James could feel her chest rise and fall

“Mum and Dad have a strict no getting friendly with customer’s rule.” Lily said so quietly, James almost didn’t hear her.

“Oh. So this happens all the time then, yeah?”

“Well actually, you’ll be the first.”

Then mercifully, Lily kisses him. James feels like someone’s lit a match in his chest. He shifts his body slightly, getting better leverage before parting his lips and Lily follows his lead. The kiss deepens, it’s warm intense and much better than it has any right to be for a girl he’s only known for just over 24 hours.

Lily makes a small sound at the back of her throat and if possible, leans further onto his body. Her hands slide into his damp hair. James is only encouraged to know she’s enjoying this as much as he is.

When they do break apart, they’re both more out of breath than they were after the run, Lily’s cheeks are tinged a deeper pink.

“Is that enough to get me camper of the month then?”

“As I said before.” Lily quirked. “I need to see some consistency.”

She leans down and suddenly they’re kissing again.

\---

James had tried his best to seem grumpy and completely, totally _not_ ecstatic when he returned to his tent. He even threw some complaints about the cold weather and free. In fact, he was rather proud of his efforts to deter the boys’ suspicions. That was, until the next morning, when Lily and James had slipped away to his tent while the other three boys were at lunch.

Things had only just begun to become interesting when James is greeted by a rather loud exclamation of “Bloody Hell!” from Sirius who stood crouching at the doorway. Lily moved quickly to scramble away as she was pressed up against James in a way that left rather little to the imagination.  

“Chasing tents my arse.” Sirius cried, he turned to Lily. “So when you were talking to that Alice girl this morning about a bloke you met being the best snog of your life, _this_ is who you meant?”

Lily turned a rather impressive crimson tried her best to look anywhere that wasn’t in the direction of James.

James just grinned at her, “If it makes you feel any better, you’re _definitely_ the best snog of mine.”

Braving his gaze, Lily smirked at him slightly before breaking out into a smile.

“Are you two properly together then?” Asked Sirius, seemingly disgusted.

“No.” James said slowly, “But now that you mention it…” He glanced over at Lily.

“Sounds great to me.”

James clapped his hands together, “Brilliant. Well I suppose yes then.”

Sirius appeared rather confronted by the whole ordeal.

“And you thought Moony and _I_ were going to be the ones with the funny business on this trip... So much for lads bonding time. Instead Prongs just finds himself a girlfriend….” Sirius muttered, before exiting the tent in a mystified daze.

Lily looked at James curiously, “Moony? Prongs?”

“High school nicknames.” James explained sheepishly.

“Oh god, my boyfriends a nerd.” Lily muttered, before shifting her body back towards his.

**Author's Note:**

> 1\. just thought i'd mention that this au is based largely on my (rather tame) experience in the Australian bush, not so much the english, so if there's some discrepancies, forgive me.   
> 2\. i'm really not sure what happened to this fic but james x lily is my all time favourite pairing so i'm pumped i've finally published a work about them ((even if this didn't turn out nearly as well as i would have liked)).  
> 3\. hope you were entertained !


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